Musical drums are percussion instruments generally including two drum heads mounted on a cylindrical drum shell. Typically, the drum heads are held in place against the drum shell by hoops or rims. Some drum varieties include only one drum head, such as the bongo drum and some base drums. The snare drum, in addition to having two drum heads, also includes wires stretched across one of the drum heads which beat against the drum head when the head vibrates. The wires generate high frequency sound waves altering the sound of the drum.
As shown in FIG. 1, conventional wooden drum shells 10 are constructed from multiple layers 12, 14, 16, . . . overlaid upon each other in the radial direction r.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,381,494 discloses a drum formed from annular courses united side by side to form a composite unitary structure in which each course is composed from a plurality of sections connected end to end to form a ring. In accordance with such construction each course is jointed along the circumference, connected by glue, cement or the like. Thus, the material is not uniform along the circumference. The varying material results in the annular course having varying vibration characteristics along the circumference. Further, as the courses and sections are connected with glue, cement or the like, the relative position of the courses may vary during construction.
According to the present invention, non-jointed annular rings ar used to maintain the uniformity of material along the circumference of the drum shell. The non-jointed rings, preferably, are formed from a laminated plywood. Pins are inserted into adjacent rings to precisely position the rings relative to one another. Accordingly, a controlled smooth inner drum shell surface is achievable with the inner radii of the rings being aligned to the desired positions.
As the musician strikes the drum, the sound waves travel through the air within the drum shell resulting in the vibration of the drum heads and the drum shell. In the past, metal brackets or the like have been attached to the drum shell for holding the drum heads in place. The added structure, however, changes the vibration characteristics of the drum shell altering the structure's natural resonance frequency. A pure or more natural sound is achieved according to this invention by eliminating the brackets and including sounding rings of greater outer radius than the other rings and fastening the drum heads to respective sounding rings. The sounding rings are made from the same material as the other rings resulting in a uniformly composed drum shell.
The sounding rings include threaded metal inserts into which a bolt connecting the drum head to the sounding ring is attached. This avoids the prior art use of lug nuts and spring loaded lug nuts about the drum shell. Such lug nuts and springs lead to undesired vibrations and rattling which now can be avoided. This is particularly important for studio work in which the springs often have to be removed to avoid unacceptable rattling noises. According to this invention the rattling problem is avoided.
Musical drums are tuned by adjusting the tension of the skin comprising the drum head. This is achieved by selectively adjusting the bracket fasteners or the like which connect the drum head to the drum shell. According to this invention a wide tuning range is achieved by providing an end ring in contact the drum head which has a flat contact surface, substantially rounded contact surface or a generally pointed contact surface. The varying shape provides differing damping characteristics so as to vary the number of overtones produced in the drum head. As a result, the bolts or the like connected to the sounding ring and pressing the drum head to an end ring are adjusted to give a wide tuning range.
The musical drum according to this invention also provides a new natural look to the drum instrument. The stacked non-jointed layers including the sounding rings may be stained with any one or more of various natural wood stains.